Did Amazon Misrepresent the Cloud?

[Scarpad]

You have to admit Amazon did lead to believe that the Fire would be able to utilize your files and vids on the cloud that you upload. And it cannot. I kinda understood the fire at 8gb of file size because you could utilize your cloud drive, but it makes no sense that you cannot.

[HumphreyC]

It is a bit annoying. I haven't bought a Kindle Fire - but I've been mulling it over for a while. When I first saw the OS I got very excited because I thought you could just upload your pdf e-books to the cloud drive and read them from there in the browser rather than having to download them or load them on the device. It seems the integration isn't that good which is a shame because loading music from your cloud drive looks to work pretty well. If it had the personal doc integration it would have been the perfect reading device.

The other things that are a bit annoying are pretty trivial if one is honest but do make a difference to whether I would consider buying it or not. The first (as I gather from the reviews) is the lack of page turn animations. Now I know these are a bit naff - but that's not the point. I can get them on the Kindle reader on my ipod touch so why not on the Kindle Fire ? The second is the lack of text to speech. Again it's something that isn't strictly necessary but it's a feature you would except to be in the fire given it's been in previous Kindles.

[weatherman]

Edit: I just realized that the file I uploaded was M4V, not MP4. Therefore my previous comment was not accurate in saying that the video cloud didn't work as advertised. I will experiment with an MP4 file if I can find one to see if it does, in fact, work.

[HumphreyC]

The annoying thing is that on a normal computer the Amazon cloud storage is great. Need a book ? Just open the cloud drive go to the right directory and either download the book you want or open it in the browser's pdf reader. Want your music ? - go to the cloud music player and stream it like it's your own personal Spotify. That's the way it should work on the Fire as well - and it does for music but not for your own docs and vids.

[beckywc]

What's needed is a client like drop box and box.net have for the fire to access the cloud drive using the fire. I've placed a request for one, waiting to hear from them.

[Scarpad]

Originally Posted by weatherman

Edit: I just realized that the file I uploaded was M4V, not MP4. Therefore my previous comment was not accurate in saying that the video cloud didn't work as advertised. I will experiment with an MP4 file if I can find one to see if it does, in fact, work.

It doesnt make a difference, Amazon said on their support forums that you have to load content on the device thru USB. Not exactly how they were pusing thier cloud service. Hopefully they'll send an update to rectify this if they get enough complaints

[Scarpad]

Originally Posted by beckywc

What's needed is a client like drop box and box.net have for the fire to access the cloud drive using the fire. I've placed a request for one, waiting to hear from them.

Yes an app for this would work well.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Scarpad

It doesnt make a difference, Amazon said on their support forums that you have to load content on the device thru USB.

And a USB cable is an optional accessory

[weatherman]

Originally Posted by Scarpad

It doesnt make a difference, Amazon said on their support forums that you have to load content on the device thru USB. Not exactly how they were pusing thier cloud service. Hopefully they'll send an update to rectify this if they get enough complaints

So even if I upload an MP4 or some other file type, I won't be able to stream it or download it to the Fire? That certainly wasn't what I thought I was getting.

And I just tried some docs - uploaded to the Cloud, and they don't appear in the Fire's Docs tab. That would have been the intuitive thing, but apparently no, I have to email the docs to myself like the oldschool Kindle. Will I be charged for that?

It's beginning to look like this Cloud drive has been oversold, or at least isn't ready to perform in the way it really should. I don't mind much, since I have my own "cloud" drive with my 500GB Pogoplug, but since there's no app for it yet in the Amazon App Store, it's not quite easy yet either - I'll have to grab the app from the Market somehow.

Erf. Things like this make me feel like maybe I should just get a nook tablet instead.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by weatherman

So even if I upload an MP4 or some other file type, I won't be able to stream it or download it to the Fire? That certainly wasn't what I thought I was getting..

This isn't the case. I uploaded an MP4 to the video folder in my Cloud. I was able to access it from the Fire. I went to Amazon.com from the device and chose Amazon Cloud Drive / Your Cloud Drive from the left menu. Found the file, long pressed on it, and selected the Save Link option. It goes to your Downloads folder on the device. You get a notification at the top of the screen when the download is complete. A file explorer is needed to access the Downloads folder.

Yes, an app would be convenient, but you can get to your Cloud content rather easily. There's no misrepresentation.

[beckywc]

Sion, I'll give it another go, thanks.

[rhadin]

I was more surprised to learn that the version of Android it uses is not only highly customized but also an older version of Android that wasn't designed for use on tablets, unlike subsequent versions. Apparently, apps that will run on that version of Android cannot be found in the Android app store leaving app developers having to decide whether to build a special app for the Kindle tablet and a second one for the Android app store or just one.

I always love it when Amazon calls me friend!

[weatherman]

Originally Posted by SCION

Yes, an app would be convenient, but you can get to your Cloud content rather easily. There's no misrepresentation.

Okay, maybe it's not misrepresentation, but there's certainly a lot of confusion especially around this docs and video Cloud.

Here's how it should work: the Cloud should be a service of the Fire. Tabs marked Newsstand, Books, Music, Video and Apps should lead to corresponding folders in the Cloud drive where you manage that content. If you upload a book to your Cloud drive, it should appear on your Kindle's library. If you upload a personal document to your Cloud Doc folder, it should appear on the device as available for download under the Docs tab. If you upload a video to your Cloud video folder, it should appear as available to download or stream from the Video tab on the Fire.

That would be the simple way to do things; manage content on the Cloud from the web interface for all kinds of content - use that 5GB as much as you like for whatever you like. Buy more space if you want it. But that doesn't seem to be the way things work at all; the Docs is only for on-board storage (backed up in the Kindle Archive), the Video is only for on-board storage and as a digital locker for purchased content, and there are no books or newsstand folders on the Cloud drive at all..

It's all a mess is my point. Amazon just got a little ahead of themselves introducing the Cloud drive and the app store without thinking about how they would work best together with the digital content archive and personal documents on the Fire. And they haven't been clear about how it all works, so it's leading to confusion, which is not good for device adoption. Maybe they'll take a step back and in a few months time be able to tweak it to work like it should.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by weatherman

Okay, maybe it's not misrepresentation, but there's certainly a lot of confusion especially around this docs and video Cloud.

Here's how it should work: the Cloud should be a service of the Fire. Tabs marked Newsstand, Books, Music, and Video should lead to corresponding folders in the Cloud drive where you manage that content. If you upload a book to your Cloud drive, it should appear on your Kindle's library. If you upload a personal document to your Cloud Doc folder, it should appear on the device as available for download under the Docs tab. If you upload a video to your Cloud video folder, it should appear as available to download or stream from the Video tab on the Fire.

That would be the simple way to do things; manage content on the Cloud from the web interface for all kinds of content - use that 5GB as much as you like for whatever you like. Buy more space if you want it. But that doesn't seem to be the way things work at all; the Docs is only for on-board storage (backed up in the Kindle Archive), the Video is only for on-board storage and as a digital locker for purchased content, and there are no books or newsstand folders on the Cloud drive at all..

It's all a mess is my point. Amazon just got a little ahead of themselves combining the Cloud drive with the digital content archive, and they haven't been clear about it. It's leading to confusion, which is not good for device adoption. Maybe they'll take a step back and in a few months time be able to tweak it to work like it should.

Well said. I'm in agreement. Your expectations are reasonable.

[Scarpad]

Originally Posted by SCION

This isn't the case. I uploaded an MP4 to the video folder in my Cloud. I was able to access it from the Fire. I went to Amazon.com from the device and chose Amazon Cloud Drive / Your Cloud Drive from the left menu. Found the file, long pressed on it, and selected the Save Link option. It goes to your Downloads folder on the device. You get a notification at the top of the screen when the download is complete. A file explorer is needed to access the Downloads folder.

Yes, an app would be convenient, but you can get to your Cloud content rather easily. There's no misrepresentation.

it does not do this I tried this all it did was download a link to the folder I saved it to , not the file itself